With increasing raw material costs, the recycling of used carpet becomes increasingly cost effective and even profitable. Carpet is typically composed of a hydrocarbon-based material or natural fibers, such as wool. These types of materials can be effectively recycled.
Typically, when carpet is being recycled, its composition must be determined in a first step in recycling. Carpets based on natural products such as wool must be processed differently from hydrocarbon-based materials. And, carpets based on different types of hydrocarbons must also be separately processed in order to make the recycling as profitable and efficient as possible.
In the past, different techniques have been used to determine the composition of the carpets. One of the most primitive ways of determining the carpet composition is by burning a sample and then determining content based upon the smell and/or character of the flame. This approach has obvious drawbacks. A more sophisticated approach works by determining the spectroscopic response. Specifically, Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR) systems have been used to determine the spectral response of carpet, which response is used to determine the composition of the carpet so that it can be processed accordingly.